In The Heat of the Sea Moon's Night
by Chi Ki Kant
Summary: Tsukimi almost got Kuranosuke killed, so she sets up a punishment to make it up to him. Warning: Corporal punishment.


In The Heat of the Sea Moon's Night

By Chi Ki Kant

A/N: Special thanks to Mr. Dusk for writing the ending to this. (Beginning with "Well done...")

* * *

Tsukimi awaited the arrival of the sixth greatest yet most secret fear amongst Amars: Angry regret.

She knew she deserved this, but couldn't help feeling a tinge of anguish upon realizing what she brought herself into. Like a recommendation to join a team of people governed by uncomfortable leadership, Tsukimi was held back by a demotivating sense of failure she knew would be just as bad anyway if not worse.

The disprovable doubt it could be worse was what really petrified her harder than any concrete she ever mimicked in her life. Each second she waited was akin to a sugarcoated version of every other moment in her life she knew was a bad idea despite choosing to ride out anyway.

Once she saw them at the same time, however, Tsukimi knew the present wasn't going to get this over with just as easily.

Although Kuranosuke's eyes gave him away underneath, there Tsukimi saw her again after only a few years: her mother, dark ebony hair with a sand pale hue to contrast her apron across a solemn albeit worried gaze.

On the other side of the spectrum, however, Kuranosuke felt the exact way he had avoided trying to feel since his family attempted to impose the potential weight of a prime minister in his young and inexperienced grasp: unwanted responsibility.

Tsukimi had shown him the ropes through a hundred notecards so as to prove his control was limited either way, yet Kuranosuke nevertheless tried to shy away all the unwanted guilt this sort of rare power built up within his guts, let alone the blushing face half an hour of makeup did a good job at hiding.

"Tsukim...Tsukimi, dear, I am very disappointed in you, honey." Began Kuranosuke, a pungent severity uncommonly present in his disguised voice as he weakly read each card to play the soon to be cruel part.

This was worse than Tsukimi ever hoped to anticipate. Not only did Kura's height capture the mother figure Tsukimi feared in the exact youth she'd be punished like this, but his voice...

It was too bad she didn't have any makeup to hide behind.

"Do you know what I have to do now Tsuki...sweetie?" asked Kuranosuke, giving away discomfort via shifts in vocal delivery. Tsukimi instructed him how authenticity could be pulled off as long as he at least absorbed all the worded patterns given, thus morph his conviction into the very person Tsukimi didn't expect to see again.

Regardless of pulling her Mom off 110%, Tsukimi nevertheless held back the tears until Kuranosuke truly committed to this all the way through.

"Yes...Mom" Tsukimi replied, standing up from the chair to allow Kuranosuke to take her place. Upon placing her back to the window, Tsukimi cringed at the very memories she was asking to bring back.

A wooden spoon, hairbrush, cane, and belt, which despite measuring a centimeter away from her reach, nevertheless gave Tsukimi goosebumps.

It was nearly coincidental that both Tsukimi and Kura gave one another the sort of makeovers that they once dreaded before realizing how beneficial they could really be when given the time.

"Then, come on, turn around and…lay down. I don't want your hands anywhere near your waist as you recieve each object. You got me, young lady?" Instructed Kuranosuke, nearly getting the hang of it before he read the exact reason why he had to say all of that.

"Yes Mommy" replied Tsukimi before bending over the window's edge to face the very implements that would be more than just seen in her case.

"Now close…your eyes. This is because you…put Kuranosuke in peril, Tsukimi. I wouldn't be…doing this if I wanted you to get away with murder" He said, before hesitating to go beyond placing the palms of his hands on Tsukimi's hips. The very heat they both assumed enveloped their faces separately now pressed onto their faces simultaneously.

Mutually even.

Although hesitant through a fast pace, Kuranosuke felt even more unwelcome intimacy upon slowly lowering Tsukimi's undergarments, along with her sweatpants, down to her tiny little feet.

The sight Kuranosuke never assumed he'd see in person, of Tsukimi's now surprisingly convex buttocks, at least for her petite stature, made it borderline impossible to contain the thick liquid that left his nose, if not from a lower part of his body. it didn't help he as far as took mental note that they were just as freckled as her own lovely countenance whenever she ditched the glasses.

After a few seconds, Kuranosuke's resolve put him back into the character he now found critically sadistic if Tsukimi's mind had all but turned into a desolate wasteland of mortification she could only endure if no longer try to evade . All she knew was that Kuranosuke didn't exist anymore.

To bring back her mother from the grave, she had to bring back not only the side of her she didn't want, but as far as adapted to her current time.

Kuranosuke stroked Tsukimi's hair as he took hold of each implement, cringing upon tact. He clearly wouldn't enjoy this as much as Tsukimi, but the last thing on her mind was to let remorse find room in that same wasteland. It was remorse, after all, why she couldn't do anything except compel herself into all of this.

Kuranosuke swallowed his own frailty for what came next, which would ironically enough, land all the more stigma on him unless he took it just as durably as Tsukimi wished to.

"Now, the reason…you got…Kuranosuke hospitalized, Tsukimi, love, was because he did a better job at spotting a Lion's mane jellyfish than you, even when one was right behind you" Kuranosuke read, before withdrawing his hand from her hair to take hold of the objects. "You had ten minutes to study each of these 'stingers', so I-"

For the first time in this whole entirety, Kuranosuke lowered the cards and forgot what he was doing.

"Tsukimi, this is insane and just wrong, you know I forgive you alread-"

"But you're NOT Kuranosuke, MOM! I KNOW he forgave me, already!" she retorted furiously, even without opening her eyes. "I…can't stop now. Not until I make up to it by proving I still know my jellyfish after all these years! Please, Mommy, you know I deserve this"

Tsukimi faced Kuranosuke dead on, with her eyes still closed. He at long last understood: Kuranosuke was dressed up as her mother, but her eyes didn't see him anymore.

They would never see him again either, unless he was as strong as her, if not stronger. Like the day he pushed that jellyfish away from her, which almost cost him his arms. With that decided, he flipped the card and accepted the sadist in him that was only a quarter of what raised Tsukimi.

"Then…I'll begin the test. The rules are as given..." he began before starting with the most ill-advised sample question ever written despite being the closest proof to the reciprocal nature of this chastening: his hand.

"Each separate twinge represents a jellyfish sting. Say this was to represent, for instance…a Clara jellyfish" he said before he went with his character and brought his hand down on her sit spots.

*SLAP!*

Tsukimi only mildly jolted her he'd up a smidgen upon feeling her flesh battered by Kuranosuke's own equally bare hand. Kuranosuke recoiled with a swallow upon seeing how commonplace it was to Tsukimi, as if it was just another day from her childhood for her.

"If the recipient answers correctly, the teacher will move on to the next question. If the recipient's answer consists of one besides Clara jellyfish, the recipient will be pampered with twice the amount of stingers before moving on to the next question, like so"

*SLAP!* *WHAP!*

Tsukimi chimed her teeth upon feeling more - and stronger - contact. She could try and get used to being seen without her clothes from the waist down, but anything else became just as equal a challenge.

"Keep in mind the quantity of…stings can vary depending on the kind of…er, stinger" continued Kuranosuke, dreading how committed Tsukimi was if even his hand was going to get the only chance to feel it. "Now, let's begin."

Kuranosuke read, to his sudden horror, the first implement he would follow through: the cane. Nevertheless, he hardened his resolve and grabbed the skinny light brown wooden pole before taking a good look at Tsukimi's bottom. His wish at that moment was to avoid the urge to even mentally picture it one more time, in its natural pale like his inevitably repressed peeve wanted him to, before using the cruel instrument to paint it another color that would match its august nature. Kuranosuke laid the cane on Tsukimi's cheeks, which recoiled upon instinctual albeit inherently beneficial acquaintance, before raising it up to aggressively reinforce Newton's third law.

*SWAT!* *SWAT!*

Tsukimi's head rumbled as her cheeks rippled like water. She puckered her lips inward at the second bite of the cane, the pain nearly making her forget the genus of jellyfish she had prepped herself for.

"What jellyfish was that?" asked the substitute teacher warmly, especially given who she was underneath herself.

Tsukimi clenched her fists to carefully think about this, trying not to remember how this was only the beginning. As much as she was set to devote her mental, physical, and all her emotional tenacity to this, that didn't make it any less difficult to bear. After three seconds, Tsukimi responded with cocksure albeit nettled veneer.

"…Irukandji jellyfish, like a scorpion underwater, the tinier the stingers make them all the more…lethal" she replied with that same confident, if borderline desperate, certainty.

Kuranosuke couldn't help but feel relief and pride simultaneously. If Tsukimi wasn't as smart as she looked he would never have befriended her on the day she most needed his help.

"Very good." replied Kura, only wanting to feel confident, had it not been for two mortifying presences: The slowly crimson gleam forming on Tsukimi's behind, and two, the fact the hairbrush came next, if not the cringeworthily mystifying quantity.

Hairbrushes were for the head, not any other place that didn't at least have hair. For the first time, in this entire ordeal, Kuranosuke wanted to protest on how overly strict Tsukimi's mother was if it meant bringing his craze of renovating hairstyles into this and using it against him like a portable Ludovico technique.

But the real irony was that he could only use that anger against himself by transferring it onto poor Tsukimi the way he had to anyway. If only she'd believe him in knowing how equal this punishment was for him.

"Now-" he began, bringing down the implement with that same underestimated force.

*WHAP!* *WHAP!* *SMACK!*

It now began. Like an exercise routine that couldn't be talked out of, Tsukimi not only felt the burn but the fear it promised. It eclipsed her train of thought to a stoical, and by default, unpropitious amnesia.

Kuranosuke wanted to notice how hard she was beginning to take this as her lowered head began to give him an idea. He waited for three to four seconds, estimating the amount of time it took her to reply to the previous blows, before asking with an uncalled for voice.

"Which jelly?" Asked Kuranosuke, a wounding question to match the smart.

Tsukimi then began to go from accepting glimpses to finally feeling her: The maternal side she forgot she hated to the point she strove to deviate from. The side everybody hated yet most times had enough kindness to accept, even if it was too much in Tsukimi's unfair case. Unfortunately, the resentment she followed with her answer clouded that same judgment.

"Box jelly!" she replied sourly, before the compunction of her actions followed. It was just as overdue to speak out.

Even though it didn't help she forgot the right answer.

Despite their sweet history together, Kuranosuke couldn't help but pungently recognize that tone on one other unfortunate occasion.

 **-x-**

 _"Can I come back and visit?" asked Kuranosuke, filling Tsukimi with a belly full of butterflies. The kind of butterflies that made it as sweet to have as the resplendent rainbow of flowers they were set to pollinate._

 _Despite Kuranosuke having helped Tsukimi out by not only saving the life of her beloved Clara, but having as far as helping her adopt Clara into her life, one fact remained:_

 _He wasn't the person she mistook underneath, and nothing could change that._

 _"N…_ No" _she replied sternly, albeit undeservedly._

 **-x-**

Times like those made Kura question if they would ever have any good moments ever again unless a bad one like that proved this world was composed of nothing but bad ones. It didn't matter as Kuranosuke not only became Tsukimi's mother, but went as far as comprehended her incentives. It was as though Kuranosuke was the one who really died.

"I'm…sorry, but that's the wrong answer, Tsukimi honey." he replied, before refusing to give Tsukimi a break. Or at least a chance to count like he was meant to in accordance with the notecards. He raised the brush to a height greater than his own and swallowed his good emotions the best he could.

*WHAP!* *WHACK!* *WHAP!* *SMACK!* WHACK!* SMACK!*

"NNNNNnnnnnnngh!" Tsukimi mildly exclaimed, drumming her hands to escape the hell. The weight of these strikes was heavier threefold upon Tsukimi's miscalculation. Regardless of the bleaker crimson her once apricot lit butt cheeks now possessed, Tsukimi gave more effort than she could to maintain her composure, even if Kuranosuke couldn't help but wince. He could envy her, had it not been for that noticeable hint of childlike desperation her voice previously communicated.

As Kuranosuke allowed Tsukimi a few seconds to catch her breath, he removed the card to remind himself to return to later. It didn't get anymore up and close than this. "Breathe in, breathe out, Tsukimi dear" He instructed, the tone of his mother not only more obvious but starting to frustrate Tsukimi.

As she did as instructed, It wasn't demeaning to Tsukimi until Kuranosuke knew how she felt and tried to give her the help she wanted from the last person on Earth. She wasn't so much regretting following this through but having been too creative with the notecards. Even if it really did the exact opposite of help, Tsukimi knew deep down this was not fun for Kuranosuke either.

Especially upon hearing he slowly caught his breath at the next item. If she knew better, this would be just as much good news if not a little bit more bad news. No matter what followed, she knew which jellyfish came next from Kuranosuke's fearful wheeze.

Tsukimi took advantage of the breather before hearing Kuranosuke speak again.

"Next jellyfish-" started Kuranosuke, before working up the valor to hold the sharp, leathery strap. At least brushes dealt with nothing other than hair, which didn't have to clash with clothing.

After this, Kuranosuke would have a hard time looking at, if not holding, a belt the same way again.

 _This shouldn't be what you want, Tsukimi. You know I know better._

Without even considering a method whatsoever, Kuranosuke raised the strap and sliced Tsukimi's fragile nerves into a new specimen of remorse she couldn't accept.

*SLAP!* *SNAP!* *SLAP!* *SMACK!*

"Aaah!….Gasp!" Tsukimi shrieked as Kuranosuke brought the fire. Like an accidental burn from an iron, never in her life did she think something like this would bite this much. The pain scrambled not only her thoughts and emotions, but nearly her identity. To the point she was blindly wondering what motivated Kuranosuke, despite its remaining fair game, to perpetrate this all the way through. As much as she expected him to speak out by now, life was only good at proving the opposite as far as her threshold could tell.

"Which…jellyfish?" Asked Kuranosuke decisively.

It didn't matter how true Kuranosuke was to this, Tsukimi's sense of pseudo treachery from her own friend of the heart, if he was really willing to reach these lengths, liberated the emotions she lost the pride to withhold. As she answered, Kuranosuke noticed she was barely taking the heat upon paying heed to what was supposed to be his doing.

The stripes smeared upon her poor butt had taken a toll in transitioning from a dark crimson to even a tiny hint of purple the older each one overlapped.

"S…sea….wasp…" She hesitated before facing the real irony that let the tears free. The very jellyfish Kuranosuke saved her beloved Clara from was what he now introduced to her in the most unwelcome way possible. What she would forever feel ingrained underneath and above her skin. "….box….jellyfi…SOB!…jellyfish" she finished, without accepting the energy to elaborate on the nomenclature so as to just let the little girl inside of her cry.

Even if she could tell it was almost over, Tsukimi knew her limit when she passed it. There was no dignity in knowing what she was good at if it meant becoming an emotional martyr to a kingdom that made her walk through so much fire. So much disrespect she knew she didn't deserve.

Kuranosuke himself was beginning to think they were both biting on more than they could chew if seeing Tsukimi, **his** Tsukimi, like this placed an expanding cramp within the pit of his innards. As accustomed as she thought she was, Tsukimi forgot Kuranosuke was only using all the energy within him to pretend to be someone she now knew he'd have to hate to be able to pull off like this.

Even method acting could take a toll Kuranosuke, with all his riches, couldn't afford if Tsukimi was the one paying.

"Very…good" replied Kuranosuke, placing a hand on one of Tsukimi's pigtails. He was set to stroke, but in her wounded state, Kura could smell the fear, which Tsukimi desperately thought she did an all too well job at hiding.

"Last jelly..." he said, despite knowing he was skipping the Portuguese man-o-war, which Tsukimi answered incorrectly. If she really cared she's as far as point out he forgot the one question which discussed the creature that wasn't even a jellyfish. At least she could tell Kura knew she had reached some sort of limit.

He laid the wooden spoon over her, knowing if she could be this strong then he had no excuse to keep going. This was still the equivalent of writing the answer to the last question on the eraser she dropped, if that eraser somehow had the surface of a cheese grater. Then he just did it.

*WHACK!* * SMACK!* *WHACK!*

"…Oh huh huh huh!" Tsukimi wept, allowing the puncturing to envelope her body while destructing her once collected resolve she thought she could take good care of by secluding in plain sight. It didn't really feel good to release the smug temper she knew all along wasn't different from when her mother mildly yet still noticeably castigated her at a young age. But Kuranosuke was another case altogether.

It was as though she was asking him to break the barriers of her hipsterish otaku ego in more than just friendly reminders.

"Which jellyfish, sweetie?" he asked unexpectedly placing a tissue on her nose, as if to say blow.

"*SNORT!* Spotted…j….jellyfish SOB" She replied, now that she couldn't taste her own random a thought as it was for this sort of situation, It was a special kind of comfort that Kura saw her beyond that so-called 'ugly rotten self' she conceitedly patronized herself with. Kura gave her a few seconds to pick up some self-assurance, despite knowing her anxiety towards the right answer was like a reflex by now.

"Well done..." Kuranosuke felt the tissue being taken from his hand, and released his grasp to grant Tsukimi possession of the disposable handkerchief. He pulled back and released a breath of relief, before his heart started to sink when he noticed the results of the test.

In some places upon Tsukimi's now ruby-dyed buttocks, the skin had started to tear open. Small beads of liquid oozed out of the tears and started to streak down the backside of the sobbing Tsukimi. Kura felt a tad ill, he had worried about this outcome ever since he began the scenario, but he couldn't break the illusion now.

Tsukimi would never forgive him.

Kuranosuke instead went back to the notecards, finding the one he needed to read after the final question. "How...how do you feel sweetie?" he asked, voice shaking a bit as he dreaded her answer.

Tsukimi didn't respond until after a few quick breaths between sobs. "I...I...it hurts mommy." She didn't turn around or even rose up from the windowsill but rather kept the tissue up to her eyes.

The next note led Kura's free hand onto Tsukimi's head, lightly patting her, "I-I know it hurts, baby...it hurts me too that I needed to spank you in the first place..." his hand traced slowly from her head down her back.

"I'm sorry...I'm so sorry..." Tsukimi sobbed, she could feel the stings burning upon her bottom, and shivered when she felt a palm lightly petting it.

"It's okay, I forgive you honey..." Kuranosuke felt a bit more uncomfortable with this final direction than he had with the previous ones. He wasn't a stranger to intimacy, but doing so after comforting someone from harm he inflicted himself was unknown territory for him.

"I...I..." Tsukimi took a deep breath and turned her head around, "...I love you, Mom."

Kura trembled a bit as he read the final line: "I...I love you too Tsukimi."

* * *

O_o


End file.
